Offers a radically critical account of the Hellenocentric views of the Greek historians

Covers the whole course of Graeco-Persian relations from 550 to 331 BC

Challenges current orthodoxy at many points


The Greek Wars treats of the whole course of Persian relations with the Greeks from the coming of Cyrus in the 540s down to Alexander the Great`s defeat of Darius III in 331 BC. Cawkwell discusses from a Persian perspective major questions such as why Xerxes` invasion of Greece failed, and how important a part the Great King played in Greek affairs in the fourth century. Cawkwell`s views are at many points original: in particular, his explanation of how and why the Persian invasion of Greece failed challenges the prevailing orthodoxy, as does his view of the importance of Persia in Greek affairs for the two decades after the King`s Peace. Persia, he concludes, was destroyed by Macedonian military might but moral decline had no part in it; the Macedonians who had subjected Greece were too good an army, but their victory was not easy.

Readership: Scholars and students of ancient Greek history, the history of the Persian Empire; classicists.

Contents
1. Introduction
2. The subjection of the Greeks of Asia
3. `The lands beyond the sea`
4. The Ionian Revolt
5. The conquest of Greece
6. The war in the East Aegean
7. Peace with Athens, 449-412 BC
8. The recovery of the Greeks of Asia
9. From the King`s Peace to the end of the Social War
10. The end of the Achaemenids